•Illinois' total state debt is $271 billion•Illinois' state debt has ballooned to $51,000 per household•Illinois' state debt per resident is $21,000.

•Illinois has roughly $8.5 billion in unpaid bills•Illinois has had 12 credit downgrades since 2008.•Illinois will spend more on pensions than on education by 2016•Illinois has more units of local government than any other state in the nation•Illinois has the worst funded pension in the nation•Illinois' pension inaction costs the state $18 million per day•Illinois pension funds need 19 percent annual investment returns in order to pay for the promised benefits•Taxmageddon?For Illinois, the average tax increase in 2013 is estimated to be $3,452 per tax return for a state total of $22.73 billion.?Starting January 1, 2013, Americans will face a $494 billion tax increase, the highest ever in one year.?The average American household would see its taxes rise by $3,800 in 2013 alone.?Almost 34% of the tax increases from Taxmageddon come from the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.?Another 25% comes from the expiration of the payroll tax cut.?Taxmageddon falls primarily on middle- and low-income Americans. That’s because 60 percent of the Bush tax cuts went to middle and low-income taxpayers.

Poverty•Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) served nearly 45 million people, about one in seven Americans in FY2011•1.8 million people were enrolled in SNAP in Illinois in FY2011•2.1 million people were receiving Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits in FY2011•48% of students in Illinois were eligible for free and reduced price lunch. In Chicago, 84% were eligible in FY2011

Jobs + Growth

•Illinois' unemployment rate is 9.1%•Illinois unemployment has increased for three straight months •Nearly 600,000 Illinoisans are looking for work

•39 states have a lower unemployment rate than Illinois•It will take 43 months for Illinois’ unemployment rate to recover to its pre-recession low, given the current pace of job creation and assuming no growth in the labor force•Median household incomes have dropped by by 8.2% across the nation since President Obama took office•Median household income dropped by 2.6% in Illinois between 2010 and 2011•Illinois hiked state income taxes by 67%•Illinois is 47 in job growth•Illinois is 48 in economic outlook•Illinois is 48 in economic performance•Illinois is 48 in net domestic migration •Illinois is 48 in average workers’ compensation costs

•Illinois has the worst credit rating in the nation

•Illinois has had 12 credit downgrades since 2008•The rate of entrepreneurship in Illinois has been below the national average every year since 1996, with the exception of 2001•Chicago is tied with Detroit for the worst entrepreneurship rate among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the country•Rate of entrepreneurship below national average last 15 of 16 years•A 2012 survey of the nation’s CEOs by Chief Executive Magazine found that Illinois ranked 48th in the nation for business desirability.

Health Care•Medicaid reimbursement rates are among the worst in the nation•In 2000, 1.5 million Illinoisans were on Medicaid. As a state senator, Obama led eligibility expansions for Medicaid. By 2012, enrollment had ballooned to over 3 million people.•Medicaid was intended as a temporary safety net for those in poverty. In 2003, 51 percent of enrollees were in poverty. By 2011, just 37 percent of enrollees were in poverty.•2003: 1.6 million uninsured in Illinois (12.4 percent)•2012: 1.9 million uninsured in Illinois (14.7 percent)

Education

•CPS faces a $1 billion dollar budget shortfall next year

•40 percent of CPS students drop out•Only 6% of CPS high school freshmen get four-year degrees•Only 3% of CPS high school minority freshmen get four-year degree

So when are you moving, 2828? ;-) --------------------------------There's actually a few teachers that teach at the same school as my wife that live in Wisconsin. I think i'd like Wisconsin. My wife has friends in the western suburbs though, she wouldn't want to move, for now, but nothing really bad has happened here yet, if Illinois doesn't get bailed out it's gonna get ugly, it'll get ugly anyway, but if we don't get bailed out it'll get ugly sooner.

P.S. I own one whole entire share of the Packers. I used to hang out at a sports bar in Houston that was the home of the Houston Packers fan club. Even though the Packers are a national team with fans who probably couldn't find WI on a map if they tried, they all have one common trait... deep hatred of the Bears.

The bar would have every current NFL game somewhere on one of the TVs. I'd get there early and beg to have one tuned to the Lions game near the giant TV so I could watch both of them at once.

They'd have pity on the hapless Lions, but deep hatred for the Bears. When the Bears opponent scored, the cheers for that were almost as loud as for a Green Bay TD.

I guess the Lions are so pitiful that they cou;ldn't even work up a good hate for them.

A Bears fan in WI <deep belly laugh>. Good luck with that one, sport. ------------------------------------------------------------I'm not an in-your-face Bears fan. I don't go to bars to watch the game and i don't put Bears flags outside my house. No one would ever know unless i told them.

I'm not an in-your-face Bears fan. I don't go to bars to watch the game and i don't put Bears flags outside my house. No one would ever know unless i told them. ____________________

I don't know 28s, if you end up in WI you may want to convert,

Just intuitively, it seems like a smooth transition for someone from RECF to rooting for a team that thinks it is a good idea to wear cheese on your head while watching the game. Kinda a natural transition actually.

There's actually a few teachers that teach at the same school as my wife that live in Wisconsin. I think i'd like Wisconsin.

What kinds of things do you think would happen if the state collapses? Large-scale layoffs of gov't workers including teachers? Potholes no longer repaired? Rude clerks at the DMV? Collapse of businesses that provide goods and services to the state with subsequent private-sector job loss? Roving bands of armed hooligans going door-to-door and taking your food?

Obama would never allow a complete collapse. He's got to protect all those rich Democrats who own IL's muni bonds.

What kinds of things do you think would happen if the state collapses? Large-scale layoffs of gov't workers including teachers? Potholes no longer repaired? Rude clerks at the DMV? Collapse of businesses that provide goods and services to the state with subsequent private-sector job loss? Roving bands of armed hooligans going door-to-door and taking your food?

You've been reading the Chicago newspapers lately, I take it. Because it seems to me, from what I've read, that at least three of those five sentences are happening already.

And in California too.

(Granted, one of them is a freebie as it's happening pretty much everywhere and has been for decades.)

(Granted, one of them is a freebie as it's happening pretty much everywhere and has been for decades.)

If you're referring to rude clerks at the DMV, as I'm guessing you are, I have to say that I've had exceptionally good experiences at the one in the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. The employees were as friendly and helpful and efficient as can be (I went in there this year worried about getting my driver's license renewed because of my vision problems, and they took really good care of me) and things moved along quickly and I didn't even have to spend too much time in the place. I was impressed!

If you're referring to rude clerks at the DMV, as I'm guessing you are, I have to say that I've had exceptionally good experiences at the one in the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. The employees were as friendly and helpful and efficient as can be (I went in there this year worried about getting my driver's license renewed because of my vision problems, and they took really good care of me) and things moved along quickly and I didn't even have to spend too much time in the place. I was impressed! --------------------------------------------------------200 billion in unfunded state debt and all i got was this friendly DMV.